This invention relates to a striker carrier for a railway coupler and more particularly to a wear-resistant casting forming a load-bearing member having downwardly extending protrusions that can engage a bottom carrier section while shims or other form of spacers are positioned between the casting and the bottom section to adjustably position a railway coupler while resiliently supported on the casting. The striker carrier of the present invention is particularly useful for supporting an AAR standard E-type coupler or an AAR interlocking F-type coupler.
It is a usual practice to provide a combined car coupler striker and front draft lug casting the includes a carrier and is secured to a car sill of a railway vehicle to support the coupler for horizontal pivotal movement at a desired elevation. Examples of a striker carrier for an E-type coupler can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,327,839 and 4,345,689 and examples of a striker carrier for an F-type coupler can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,515,964; 2,556,732; 2,604,215; 4,133,434; 4,445,618; and 4,345,689. The carrier arrangement for an E-type coupler comprises an integral cast rigid structure generally protected by a high wear-resistant material in the form of a plate-like insert. An anti-friction wear surface such as a polometric sheet has been attached to the top surface of the insert for contact with the shank wear plate on an E-type coupler. In a similar way, an anti-friction sheet or insert has been provided on a resiliently supported carrier for an F-type coupler. The F-type carrier arrangement includes a carrier casting supported by springs to slide vertically in a cage-like appendage attached to the lower part of the striker. Carriers of known design fail to provide an effective means for adjusting the elevation at which the coupler is supported. It is a usual practice to attach by weld metal a wear plate to the bottom wall of the shank portion of a coupler. The shank which extends through a striker opening is connected at its butt end portion to a yoke of a draft gear assembly. The wear plate is situated on the shank portion to engage with a carrier supported by a striker casting. In a standard E-type coupler, the striker casting is formed with a central opening surrounded by a striking face in a vertical plane with the coupler shank extending through the casting so that the wear plate rests on the cast carrier member of the striker casting. Efforts have been made in the past to improve the wear-resistant property of the coupler carrier wear plate by producing the carrier or carrier wear plates from manganese steel, however such methods have failed in affording coupler shank height adjustments without effecting the vertical angling requirements of the coupler shanks. Moreover, all efforts to weld manganese steel to the cast steel material of the striker have not meet with success.
The coupler shank wear plate which is welded to the shank portion of the coupler distorts during the welding process and can wear during use from a normal 1/4 inch thickness down to about a 1/16 of an inch. During the wearing process the wear plate cracks under loading by the coupler in service. The plate can then break loose and separate from the shank eventually falling to the road bed. Not only is the shank left unprotected, but also the coupler head drops from its desired elevation rendering coupling operations difficult to perform. It is desirable to increase the bottom wall thickness of the coupler shank and eliminate the trouble plagued use of a wear plate. It is further desirable to accurately adjust the height of the shank portion of the coupler to effectively eliminate variations to the height dimension of a coupler shank including a wear plate on the shank portion having different thicknesses as well as variations to dimensions of the striker casting that effect height of the coupler shank. Present designs of AAR F-type couplers are also provided with a striker casting which includes a striker face in a vertical plane surrounding an opening through which the shank portion of the coupler extends for connection to a yoke forming part of a draft gear. The bottom wall of the striker is provided with an extended portion having a pocket therein containing springs which resiliently support a striker carrier. The carrier has lugs projecting from lateral sides thereof to engage with stops which are arranged to project into the pocket. The springs urge the carrier upwardly against the retainer lug stops and present the top surface of the carrier at an elevation which is fixed by the stops for engagement with the wear plate on the shank portion of the F-type coupler. Thus again it is not possible to adjustably elevate the shank portion of the coupler without affecting angling requirements. Wear of the coupler wear plate as well as the striker carrier and/or carrier wear plate permits a downward angling of the shank portion which is particularly detrimental in an F-type coupler because of the interlocking feature of the coupler head.